| What Is Desertification ?
Desertification is a phenomenon where the land gets degraded so that it cannot be used for growing plants, trees or for cultivation. Usually this sort of land degradation is seen in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of the world, and it caused due to many reasons, like changes in the climate and human activities.Desertification is a problem in all continents other than Antarctica. |
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The degraded land affects the lives of millions of people around the world, but the most affected are the people living below the poverty line in drylands. Nearly 41 percent of land mass on Earth is drylands, and around 2 billion people live in drylands.
Already around 10 percent to 20 percent of drylands around the world have been degraded to a certain extent. According to experts, around 1 percent to 6 percent of the people living in drylands actually live in areas that have undergone desertification. However, due to overgrazing, overcultivation and rampant deforestation, more dryland areas are under threat of desertification.
Today, environmentalists claim that desertification is one of the biggest challenges that the environment is facing, and if nothing is done to prevent and reverse the process, people living in drylands will be adversely affected. Also, on the whole, it will affect even areas that have not been desertified. Desertification causes drought, and this affects not just crisis in food availability, but also health. The areas that are worst affected due to desertification in the world are sub-Saharan region and Central Asia.
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What Is Desertification ?
